Are You In-Love With Your Characters or Just In-Like?

Hi Everyone!!

I hope everyone had a great week! It's been a bit colder than I'd like, but I can smell Spring in the air and I will patiently wait for it to come.

Maybe, not so patiently, since I've been cursing the cold since the first day of winter. Okay, so I hate winter and I live in a state shaped like a mitten. I do see the irony in that.

On to more exciting things. AKA the actual point of this post. Ha.

So I've noticed something in my current WIP that I'm revising.

What might that be? Well, I will tell you.

I may not be in-love with my characters. You know how I know this? My own characters don't make me all tingly inside when they kiss, or when they almost kiss. When something exciting happens my heartbeat doesn't get all wonky.

You may be saying, "So does that mean I'm not in-love with my own characters? Erica, that's preposterous. *Have you been sniffing glue again?"

Um, no.

I don't know what's going to happen to other writer's characters, and I know what's going to happen with mine, well most of the time. Ha. It's hard to actually know how they're going to make me feel, because I'm writing what they say and feel. I know what happens and isn't it the unknown that makes us FEEL. When we don't know if someone is going to end up with who they love, or when we don't know if someone's going to die or make it out of a precarious situation (yes, I spelled precarious correctly on the first try. *fist bump*)

So, how do I really know if they are real, sincere, good characters? The answer is simple actually.

Let someone else read it.


I truly believe I'm not going to be able to tell if there is real tension with my characters. I don't really know if what they say is funny. I only know what I think, which - don't get me wrong - is VERY important, and in many ways the most important. But if you let say five, six people read it and they all agree that a character is flat, or *gasp* a dreaded Mary Sue, then you know.

I read books for the characters first. I LOVE a great story, plot, action. I'm a plotter at heart, but really... it's the characters, the VOICE that pulls me in and gets me to care.

So. How do you feel about your characters? Are you in-love or in-like with them? And what about the people who've read your story. What do they think?

Does this make sense to anyone else? Do you feel the tingles from your own characters? Am I just a rambling fool. Don't answer that ;o)

Have a wonderful week!!

<3 Er

* I have not and will not sniff glue, and don't try that at home. It's stupid.



erica m. chapman is a YA writer by night, workin' for the cause by day. Fan of football, especially Lions and Michigan. She loves alternative music, Foo Fighters, animals, reading, golf and playing her guitar. She resides in Michigan where she sits quietly typing her next story on her macbook in her Detroit Lions Snuggie. You can also find her at ericachapman.com.

Pic credit: ofwnow.com